One think I haven't seen pointed out here is that the 'public' is in fact
many publics, and matching the resources and a more limited public tends to
make the results more usable. I did a metadata session a few years ago for
a group of librarians who were recipients of grant funding to put their
image files up. One of the requirements was that they find ways to provide
metadata. Most of them started out bemoaning the fact that they couldn't
afford to hire catalogers.
Once we started to brainstorm, we came up with options that seemed more
promising. One very small local institution was putting up older local
images, most of which had no metadata at all. The suggestion was that the
find a group of younger people (high school classes, college students,
eagle scouts?) with laptops, and forms to fill out (who, what, when, why,
etc.) and send them around to local nursing homes to see if any of the
patients were interested in helping identify what the images pictured and
who was in them. Something like that takes some time and expertise to
organize, but it might bring numerous rewards to the small institution, and
it's a good enough story that the local media should be all over it.
This might be of particular interest to folks in the Superstorm Sandy
affected areas. The street scenes in many of those neighborhoods will
never look the same. Why not put out a call for 'before' images, and see if
the folks in the area (perhaps those still in shelters?) have any interest
in identifying addresses, homeowners, etc.
Diane
On Tue, Nov 6, 2012 at 12:52 PM, john g marr <jmarr_at_unm.edu> wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Nov 2012, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
>
> A few years ago adding tagging to the catalog was the big thing, several
>> people did it. They found that users simply did not add tags in any
>> significant number, people seemed uninterested in tagging in the catalog.
>>
>> I agree it would be awfully useful to have crowd-sourced enhanced access
>> points (ie, tagging), but it's a moot point if the crowd isn't going
>> participate.
>>
>
> Simple. What are YOU doing to change the world? Just analyze what
> motivates the crowd, and/or supply motivation and see if it flies. Isn't
> that what "social media" and advertising (and everything that affects our
> lives) is all about now?
>
> Cheers!
>
> jgm
>
> John G. Marr
> Cataloger
> CDS, UL
> Univ. of New Mexico
> Albuquerque, NM 87131
> jmarr_at_unm.edu
> jmarr_at_flash.net
>
>
> **There are only 2 kinds of thinking: "out of the box" and "outside
> the box."
>
> Opinions belong exclusively to the individuals expressing them, but
> sharing is permitted.
>
Received on Tue Nov 06 2012 - 15:05:23 EST